The wonderful Wychwood Festival 2016

By Anne-Marie Wardle Rosher

Wychwood kick started our summer with a truly memorable, friendly and exciting festival from 3rd-5th June 2016. Known for being family friendly, this was the first festival of this description that we had been to, and it 100% exceeded our expectations. Although there were many happy children running about, the music was still booming and the atmosphere was alive, with a constant buzz of excitement. The size of the festival was also a lot larger than expected and spending 3 lovely summer days there was the perfect time to explore and give everything a go. The wide selection of workshops (not just for children!) kept us busy throughout the weekend, from Bollywood dancing to a circus tent and arts and crafts. One of our highlights of the festival was the BubbleincUK stall, it was truly magical! The size of the bubbles was astonishing, and if that wasn’t exciting enough, they also had smoke filled bubbles, so that when you popped them the smoke flowed out…. I highly recommend checking out their website out http://www.bubbleinc.co.uk/

Having fun hula hooping at the circus tent!Smoke filled bubbles at the BubbleincUK stall!

FOOD:
The wide selection of food was almost too much as it made deciding what to eat a very difficult task! Stalls were selling both sweet and savoury snacks and meals from chocolate covered creps and ice-creams to steak burgers and Mexican wraps, all cooked right in front of you as the wafts of scrumptious food spread throughout the festival grounds. Although festival food may be a little pricey if you’re there with a large family, unlike other festivals we have previously been to Wychwood allows you to bring your own food and drink (non-alcoholic) into the festival, meaning you can bring your own picnic and chill out in front of the main stage as you snack away. For the kids there were wonderful old- fashioned sweet stalls selling a huge array of sweet delights. For those over 18 there was a great range of alcoholic drinks on offer such as wonderful fruity Pimm’s , cider and Jagerbombs.

Scrumptious steak burger!

FACILITIES:

A lot of campsites have a reputation of being muddy, cramped and after the first night extremely messy, filled with cans and rubbish. Wychwood however was the complete opposite; the camping area was huge, meaning even if you turned up late or arrived on the Saturday you still had plenty of free choice as to where you wanted to set up your tent. It also meant that finding your way back to the tents at night didn’t result in tripping over endless guide ropes and other tents. It was also very apparent that the individuals attending Wychwood really respected the festival and this was lovely to see, it created such a nice atmosphere and it really is a wonderful clean place to bring the whole family! We were also expecting to queue for hours to get into the festival when we arrived, however it took us a mere 10 minutes! The portaloos were also an aspect that we were dreading as previous festivals haven’t given us the most pleasant experiences to say the least, but at Wychwood they were fantastic, they were kept clean and there were plenty dotted about, meaning you didn’t have to walk far wherever you were. They were also stocked up with toilet roll throughout the festival; it goes to show that such small aspects to a festival can really make such a big difference to your overall view and enjoyment – well done Wychwood!

Chilling at the tent surrounded by wonderful hills and countryside!

MUSIC AND COMEDY:

Now onto the music…our own ‘usual’ festival music as played as festivals such as Boomtown and Nozstock consists of house and drum and bass so it was incredibly refreshing and enlightening to be at Wychwood surrounded by a great array of new bands and talented musicians, from rock, funk n’ soul and reggae. We also discovered some new favourite bands, including The Correspondents, Stereo MC’s and the HOO HAs. They are definitely worth checking out; everyone had a fantastic time dancing around in the heat of the sun as the bands got everyone hyped up. But don’t worry, if you’re not the dancing sort, there were hundreds of chairs that people had bought with them and set up at the back of the main stage in perfect view of the artists. Another highlight for us was the headphone disco which was located at The Big Top stage every night from 11pm-3am, and was packed, from little ones to adults. You could switch the songs that were playing in your headphones, meaning that everyone was singing along and dancing widely to different songs, it was hilarious! The comedy line- up throughout the weekend was also fantastic, including Bill Bailey featuring as the Sunday headliner.

Flags decorating the Festival Village!Enjoying the day time music at the Main Stage!

FASHION:

As true glitter fanatics ourselves, across all three days we made sure to sparkle, and we would definitely recommend checking out the glitter selection that Festival Fashion have to offer here! https://www.wildthing.com/product-category/glitter/ If you want to go that extra bit further and stand out from the crowd then you can also purchase this amazing Iridescent Mermaid Festival Face Pack herehttps://www.wildthing.com/shop/iridescent-mermaid-festival-face-pack/, containing some fun glitter lashes, the perfect accessory for any festival! When wondering around the festival we spotted some fun hippie clothing and funky clashing patterns, all adding to the wonderful atmosphere that Wychwood has to offer. For your own inspiration checkout our Lookbookhttps://www.wildthing.com/lookbook/.

Alice looking fabulous using Dust & Dance glitter!Anne-Marie glitzing it up with a sequin jacket and flower headband!